On This Day
1940 > WW2
On This Day - 1940
- June 29, 1940
HMS Decoy, HMS Dainty, Defender, HMS Ilex and HMAS Voyager carried out depth charge attacks on three Italian submarines. They sank the Uebi Scebelli and damaged the Salpa. The Capitano Tarantini managed to escape. Following the sinking of the Uebi Scebelli, HMAS Voyager picked up secret Italian documents and she was ordered to proceed with these documents to Alexandria where she arrived on 30 June 1940
- June 28, 1940
The cruiser HMAS SYDNEY, (CAPT J. A. Collins, RAN), participated in the sinking of the Italian destroyer ESPERO, in the central Mediterranean.
- June 27, 1940
HMAS VOYAGER, (destroyer), rescued 13 of the crew of the Italian submarine LIAZZI, sunk by HMS DAINTY, off Crete.
- June 25, 1940
France capitulated. ADML A. B. Cunningham concentrated the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria to contain the French Squadron in the port. RAN ships with the Mediterranean Fleet were HMAS SYDNEY, (cruiser), and HMA Ships STUART, VAMPIRE, VENDETTA, VOYAGER, and WATERHEN, (destroyers, the ‘Scrap Iron Flotilla’).
- June 21, 1940
HMA Ships SYDNEY, (cruiser), and STUART, (destroyer), supported a combined British and French Squadron in the bombardment of Bardia. During the action SYDNEY’S Seagull amphibian aircraft was shot down by three Italian fighters, and crashed on landing. The pilot, Flight Lieutenant. T. McB. Price, RAAF, was awarded the DFC for this action.
LEUT V. A. T. Smith, RAN, participated in an attack by six Swordfish torpedo bombers of 821 Squadron, on the German battleship SCHARNHORST, off the coast of Norway. The attack was unsuccessful. LEUT Smith, who was serving in HMS ARK ROYAL, (aircraft carrier), was MID. He was later to be awarded the DSC for gallantry while serving in ARK ROYAL in the Mediterranean.
- June 19, 1940
HMAS Hobart bombarded an the Italian wireless station at Centre Peak Island, in the Red Sea during which her Seagull also made a solo bombing attack .
LCDR A. W. R. McNicoll, RAN, who was serving in HMS KANDAHAR, disarmed eight torpedoes in the captured Italian submarine GALILEO GALELEI, off Aden. The submarine had been forced to surrender by the trawler HMS MOONSTONE. LEUT G. F. E. Knox, RAN, also serving in KANDAHAR, was appointed prize captain of the submarine for the passage into Aden. LCDR A. W. R. McNicoll, RAN was later awarded the George Medal for his actions.
- June 13, 1940
HMAS VOYAGER, with HMS DECOY, (destroyers), engaged the surfaced Italian submarine FOCA, which was laying mines, with gunfire off Alexandria. The submarine submerged, and VOYAGER, (CMDR Morrow), dropped depth charges without success.
- June 12, 1940
The crew of the Italian liner ROMOLO, scuttled their ship west of Nauru, after a long pursuit by HMAS MANOORA, (armed merchant cruiser). MANOORA picked up the survivors from their boats.
The destroyer HMAS STUART, (CAPT H. L. M. Waller, RAN), detected an Italian minefield 17 miles from Alexandria. STUART, with HMA Ships VAMPIRE and VOYAGER, (destroyers), were returning to Alexandria.
- June 11, 1940
HMAS Sydney, with cruisers of the 7th Cruiser Squadron HMS Orion, HMS Neptune, HMS Gloucester and HMS Liverpool, departed Alexandria at 1.00am for a sweep after Italy declared war the prior day. HMAS Stuart and Voyager departed shortly after with the Battlefleet.
- June 10, 1940
Italy entered the war on the side of Germany. An officer in HMAS SYDNEY, (cruiser), at the time of the announcement commented, ‘The news came like the proverbial bomb in our midst.’
HMAS MANOORA, (armed merchant cruiser), shadowed the Italian merchantman ROMOLO in the Pacific, west of Nauru.